stephen sawall
Well-known member
gonzo said:cremona
thanks for checking it out.
i'll tell you, the live version, off of made in Japan, has got to be one of the most brutal live performances i've ever heard.
there's a wealth of vibe and riffage to mine from those old DP albums, but especially from MIJ
it's like a sonic mugging.
blackmore, was playing thru at least 2 full stacks of 200 watt marshalls.....
just pure volume.
it's brutal.
in an old school way....
"What did you do to change your Marshalls?"
"I had an extra output stage built on. I have no bass at all on the amp. There’re an extra two valves [tubes] built into the output stage so there’s more output. It’s boosted to about 250 or 300 watts. I use the old 200- watt amps, which you can’t get anymore because they don’t make them.
Do you use 200-watt heads?
Yeah, which are boosted. They’re the loudest amplifier in the world on their own. I’m not saying I play the loudest – it depends on how many you use. But one on its own is the loudest. I don’t like to use a lot of cabinets, I think just two cabinets is enough; otherwise the sound is all around you. l like to keep away from the sound, and that’s why onstage I play to the left of it and point it the other way. Then I can get a perspective of what’s going on; otherwise all you can hear is yourself. And you tend to get feedback and overtones you don’t want.
Do you blow them very often onstage?
Yeah, all the time lately. I don’t know why. It’s the output transformer that blows up. It’s like a finely tuned car, you can’t expect it not to break down. I really push it.
I’ve always played every amp I’ve ever had full up, because rock and roll is supposed to be played loud. Also keeping the amp up is how you get your sustain. I turn down on the guitar for dynamics. I’ve also got my amps boosted. I know Jim Marshall personally, and he boosted them for me. It’s pushing out about 500 watts. I guess that’s maybe 1,000 watts in American ratings, but it’s all distortion. The people at Marshall said it’s the loudest amp they’d ever heard. I had an extra stage built onto it, and a couple more valves. That’s why every two weeks things just tend to disintegrate. The speakers really get pushed out. I usually go trough two, sometimes more, every two weeks. I only use one of my stacks. The other’s just a spare in case I blow the other up.
Learning to play with a big amplifier is a different thing altogether. It’s trying to control an elephant."
http://www.woodytone.com/2009/04/20/ritchie-blackmores-tone-and-more-part-1/
Well .... this shows how little he understood amps at this time. What complete nonsense.
"Made in Japan" is one of the all time great albums.